korean fish ice cream

"Bungeoppang ice cream"

My only explanation for this spur of the moment ice cream “adventure” is that I Got Bored.

My officemates/seatmates abandoned me! One left pretty early for province and the other one left without even saying a word! So I’m stuck  with my lonesome self  in the office and got too bored looking at the monitor and reading tons of legal gibberish...

That’s when  I decided to step out of the office, do a little walking, inhale a little of the city’s pollution (eww!), drop by that store in Rufino Ave and buy myself some Korean ice cream. (again i forgot to look at the signage... i guess the store was Country Style coz they sell country style doughnuts inside-duh?!?). Anyway if you're in Rufino Ave Makati City, near Lyceum College of Law, you'll see a Country Style store, just enter it and then you'll find yourself in asort of canteen place  where they sell some Filipino food, on one side a bunch of Country Style doughnuts and by the window you’ll see the freezer overflowing with Korean ice cream—so hard to miss! Plus I think I saw a medium-sized tarp outside, upon leaving, just so you'll know you're in the right place!

The saleslady was just stocking up their freezer when I entered the store.  I was sooooo happy because there were a LOT of Korean ice creams to choose from!  Don’t know where to begin my quest and how many I would and could buy... given that I’m in the office (alone) and if I take them all home, they will surely, without a doubt, all melt midway! haaay... Such a dilemma, I tell you!

sneak peak of  the packed freezer

In asmuch as I'd like to photograph their fully-stocked freezer, I got terribly shy!  So I just too one pic of some of the ice creams on top the freezer (sort of paparazzi-style haha).  AND despite the fact that I'd like to try EVERY flavor (really, I was contemplating on buying all the other flavors I have not tasted,  I just restrained myself! ), since I'm all alone, I have to be satisfied with one ice cream for the day and go back again another time. No to ice cream gluttony for me today! hehehe

I was torn between choosing the chocolate cream cheese sandwich ( JUST BECAUSE I'm a die-hard, declared chocoholic!  moreover, that particular flavor I was eye-ing came highly recommended by a good friend!). The other one in consideration is the fish ice cream—the one I saw from someone else's foodblog, that intrigued me a lot ever since I saw it.

In the end,  I decided on the fish ice cream simply because I've already ordered the vanilla  cream cheese sandwich before (thinking there'll be no big difference with the chocolate flavor),  so the fish ice cream won.  I might as well try something "new"!

whoah?!? i dunno what all these mean

PLUS , I am a tad curious as to how it'll taste like.  At the price of 48Php, it wasn’t bad at all.

Actually, this is not really a fish-flavored ice cream but a fish-shaped one. A lot of people seem has a different impression when they hear the word "fish"! 

Upon purchasing, the kid in me was reborn...when food of different shapes and sizes still attracts me to eat them right away!!  That's exactly what I wanted to do..but patience is a virtue! I asked the saleslady as to what the ice cream was called, because the name in the wrapper was in Korean, and she said its called Samuya. (but later on as I googled it, I found out it was also called Samanco, Melona and all other names... guess they were just brand names and not the general name for the fish ice cream).

food on my table is ALWAYS a good sight!

see what i mean about fish-shaped?!?

I got too excited to eat...  the outer part was wafer-like—soft and chewy. Then as I took more bite into it i started to taste the vanilla ice cream.  Later on I tasted and saw a brownish sweet thingy. I tried to guess  what it was--nope, definitely not chocolate…nope I don’t think there was a nut in there either…what could it be??? I likened the flavor to coconut jam—for some unknown reason, there was a "coconutty" taste to it.  (just my tastebud's opinion!)

the vanilla cream..yummm!

now i see the sweet red bean!

As I’ve said before,  I’m not a good ice cream eater... after consuming the whole thing,  20% of it went to my hands and atleast 2% on my shirt because the ice cream melted fast.

see the mess?!

proof: ice cream on my BLACK shirt!

After my delicious mid-day dessert, I still cant get that undetectable flavor out of  my mind. And of course, what better way to find out what it is but  to use the power of google!  Hence  the search for the korean fish ice cream took place.

I found out that the odd—well, different taste was not from coconut jam but from SWEET RED BEAN!  Surprised?!? Definitely I was!  It was new to my tastebud! I’m not really into beans kinda gal but for me, the ice cream tasted great! 

Sweet and delectable!

Just RIGHT!  *with a grin of satisfactionon my face!*

Okay, here’s more of what I learned… history/korean lessons time everyone!!!

The origin of this dish is what koreans call “Bungeoppang” which litereally means “crucian carp bread”. It is a kind of food you would normally find in the streets of Korea which is a waffle-like bread with sweet red beans inside. But as time goes by, and as Koreans got more experimental with their culinary conquests, they were able to come up with an ice cream version and boiled bean version. I think (stressed on the think please!) the ice cream version is called "Binggrae" or "Bungeoppang ice cream". (I'd like to credit google for the information, I've browsed tons of sites and I forgot to note all of them...)

One heck of a sweet-tooth craving I got there.

sweet-tooth,

prettytwistedchick